Upstart Spartans eye challenge of regional

Wednesday

May 27, 2009 at 12:01 AMMay 27, 2009 at 2:48 PM

Given their recent success, the Jackson Polar Bears’ presence in the Division I softball regionals isn’t all that surprising.

The same isn’t necessarily the case with the Boardman Spartans, the team the Polar Bears will face today at 5 p.m. in a regional semifinal at the University of Akron. The winner will advance to Saturday’s noon regional title game against either Hudson or Willoughby South.

Whereas Jackson has parlayed an experienced roster – the Polar Bears have eight seniors on their roster and usually start at least six – into its second straight Federal League title, a district championship and a 25-3 record, the Spartans have managed their 23-7 mark while breaking in a rather green lineup.

DAVID HARPSTER

Given their recent success, the Jackson Polar Bears’ presence in the Division I softball regionals isn’t all that surprising.
The same isn’t necessarily the case with the Boardman Spartans, the team the Polar Bears will face today at 5 p.m. in a regional semifinal at the University of Akron. The winner will advance to Saturday’s noon regional title game against either Hudson or Willoughby South.
Whereas Jackson has parlayed an experienced roster – the Polar Bears have eight seniors on their roster and usually start at least six – into its second straight Federal League title, a district championship and a 25-3 record, the Spartans have managed their 23-7 mark while breaking in a rather green lineup.
“We’re young ... we only have one senior in our starting lineup,” first-year Boardman coach Mike Trell said. “We only have two seniors on our entire team, so it was going to take some time for them to mature and see the level of competition the Federal League brings every week. Some of them were prepared and some of them weren’t at the beginning of the season, but by now we all know what that means.
“It took us some time to find out some things about our team, but now that we have we’ve settled in nicely. But as far as having expectations of facing Jackson in a regional game, that really wasn’t on our radar at the beginning of the season.”
Trell believes that playing in one of the most competitive softball leagues in the state certainly contributed to the Spartans having to grow up in a hurry this season.
“I really think the Federal League plays some of the best softball in the state of Ohio,” Trell said. “You really don’t get a day off, which is great, because that’s what I think our kids want. After all those years of playing travel ball, you want to test yourself against some of the best teams around.”
It doesn’t hurt the Spartans that they also feature one of the best young pitchers in the league in Alex DiDomenico. The hard-throwing sophomore has been at the forefront of Boardman’s first regional berth in five seasons, as she fanned 17 in a district semifinal win over Madison before coming back to fire a one-hitter and strike out 14 in a 2-0 victory over Ashtabula Lakeside for the district title.
“She throws pretty hard and she’s got pretty good movement on her pitches,” Trell said. “She’s been good for us all year. As the season has gone on she’s gotten a little bit stronger. At the beginning of the year she was more of a thrower and as she’s gotten more experience this season she’s become more of a pitcher. When you’re young and you throw as hard as she does, you usually can throw it by people. But now she understands who she can do that against, and who she has to go inside on or work the outside corner.”
The Spartans also differ from the Polar Bears when it comes to offense. While Jackson has piled up 200 runs and is hitting. .340 as a team, the Spartans have had to scramble more for their runs.
“I would say we’re young and scrappy,” Trell said. “We play a little bit of small ball because we really don’t have a tremendously powerful lineup that’s going to lace the ball into the gaps, like maybe Jackson does.”
Third baseman Shannon Morrow is the Spartans’ lone senior starter. Leadoff hitter Danielle Petrus and shortstop Brooke Meenachan are both sophomores who have contributed to the Spartans’ surge to regionals.
Jackson and Boardman met earlier in the season, with the Polar Bears emerging with a 1-0 win. Thanks to having their second meeting postponed, the two teams were actually scheduled to meet Tuesday afternoon at Boardman in the Federal League finale for both. While neither team was expected to show much in that game, Trell knows that his team will have to hit the ball better against Jackson starter Shelbi Howington to have a shot at advancing.
“I’m not sure that (Jackson coach) Bill (Conley) or I garnered much from the first game we played,” Trell said. “I think we probably had one hit and we really didn’t effectively put the bat on the ball against Howington. But then again, Jackson didn’t hit Alex very well either and they only finished with three hits. The difference in that game was that Jackson put two hits together, and one of them was a triple. That was the game and honestly if we come in and don’t hit the ball well on Wednesday we’ll have a similar outcome. We’re going to have to step up big-time to have a chance to beat someone like Jackson.”

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